And in that moment I knew
by theevilmuffin
Summary: Sakura-centric. /But Sakura could still feel the damaged flesh and tendons of the injured chunins underneath her fingers. She could still see the terror in their eyes./ Sakura attempts to find closure. One-shot


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, it's characters, its storyline, or any related trademarks.

Warnings: some gore, language (due to Naruto's potty mouth), and possible spoilers for Kage Summit Arc, teeny little SasuSaku  
(kind of plotless but I wanted to do a kind of slice-of-life type piece. Well, that, and I got attached to this somehow and couldn't figure out how to expand it.)

In that moment I knew...  
by: theevilmuffin

x-x-x-x

There was blood everywhere. The entire route from entrance to OR was swathed in it. Despite the supposed "peace" that had blanketed the continent since the Akatsuki's defeat and the end of the war, the violence continued. If it wasn't rebels from Kumo, it was Orochimaru supporters, or Danzo supporters, or Madara supporters, or… the list went on. This time it had been a group of Iwa elites who had ganged up on a group of Konoha chunin that had been on mission in the area.

One of them had come back in pieces.

Sakura sat in the mess hall, fists on the table and a steaming cup of sake sitting in front of her. Behind her, the blood was slowly being mopped up. Tsunade, who sat across from her, enclosed her hand over Sakura's.

"All three of them will survive," she murmured.

"The fourth one won't," Sakura rebuked.

Tsunade's eyes darkened. "Sakura, he was dead before he even got here. There was nothing-"

"-we could do," Sakura finished. "I know that. And I know that being a shinobi means risking your life and living in subterfuge and seeing underneath the underneath, but that doesn't mean I approve of Iwa's actions at all."

Tsunade nodded and squeezed Sakura's hand.

Sakura scowled. "What is so addictive about war that makes people believe it's okay?" she asked.

"War is profit to some people, Sakura," Tsunade murmured. "You and I are medics, firm in our belief that life is sacred. But many shinobi, most of whom are in positions of power, do not share those same beliefs. They think of other shinobi as tools and weapons – of things to be used and discarded."

Sakura remained slient.

Tsunade sighed and let her hand slip from Sakura's. She stood up. "Drink that," she ordered, pointing to the cup of sake. "You can come and see me later if you want to talk."

Sakura shrugged in acknowledgment, her eyes focused on her cup. She looked downcast and Tsunade felt bad for leaving her on her own, but Sakura was a kunoichi and perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Tsunade gave her apprentice one last soft glance before she strode towards the hospital exit, prepared to re-enter Hokage mode and kick some people's political butts.

x-x-x-x

"Fucking Iwa nin," Naruto snarled. "They think that they can get away with this shit. We've wiped the floor with them in the last three wars and we can do it again."

"Naruto…" Sakura murmured. "There's no point."

"No point?" Naruto growled. "They attacked a group of Chunin, three of whom were newly graduated! One of them died! Those Iwa nin can't be allowed to just walk away."

"They won't be allowed to walk away, Naruto," Sakura murmured, suddenly angry. She could understand Naruto's violent reaction to what appeared to be an unprovoked attack, but she couldn't control her frustration at his need to use his fists to solve the problem – at her need to use her fists. "But going to the Iwa border and purposely picking a fight with their elite shinobi would prove no point. We'd just being doing exactly what they want. They think we're nothing but savages and if we go over there and drag them through the mud, it will only prove it."

"And, so what, we just roll over and take it?" Naruto spat.

"No," Sakura said, eyes hard. "We let Tsunade handle it."

Naruto roared in frustration and stormed off, but Sakura still noticed his normally bright eyes turn glassy.

x-x-x-x

"I heard what happened with the Iwa nin," Sasuke said.

Sakura snapped from her reverie, surprised that he'd even sought her out. They hadn't really talked much since he'd been reinstated as a Konoha shinobi.

She shrugged, "I think everyone has by now."

"I heard from Naruto," he clarified.

Sakura groaned, "Look, Sasuke, if you're just here to try and convince me to see Naruto's side of things, than you might as well just leave."

"I thought you were right."

Sakura blinked and turned to face him, shocked.

Sasuke shrugged nonchalantly, as if agreeing with her on something was no big deal. "Letting Tsunade deal with this is for the best."

"I thought you'd be all for Naruto's grand adventure to Iwa to seek justice – vengeance," Sakura said.

Sasuke shook his head. "Maybe I want them to die, yeah, but I don't want to put anyone in danger because of it. Going over there now would just be asking for war. Not to mention it would only prove to the Iwa nin that we are not above their provocations. Going over there would be doing exactly what they want."

There was a brief silence. Sakura had nothing left to say on the matter and Sasuke was fine letting the conversation die.

But Sakura could still feel the damaged flesh and tendons of the injured chunins underneath her fingers. She could still see the terror in their eyes. Even talk of retribution, and Sasuke's agreement of how the punishment should come, did little to quell her nauseating recollections.

"I thought it was Team 8," Sakura admitted. "They were supposed to be patrolling the Iwa border today. I hadn't realized that they had been rerouted until I found out that the bleeding mass of kunoichi under me was Hanabi, not Hinata."

"Is she…?"

"She's fine. Hinata was quite hysterical about it and of course Naruto threw a massive shit fit over it, but she's fine. One of her squadmates didn't make it, though. He was an Aburame, I think," she murmured. "He came back in pieces."

Sasuke looked away. She could see him internally fighting off the disgust that the words brought.

Sakura gave a humorless smile and stared off into the distance. Her hand trembled on the railing of the bridge, her knuckles bone-white as she held onto the wood with a deathly strong grip. A grip on her wrist pulled her out of her thoughts and towards Sasuke.

"Sasuke? What?"

He pulled her until she was pressed up against him, nose pressed into his collarbone. His arms rested carefully around her back and his chin on her shoulder.

"Sasuke…" she whispered as her voice cracked with emotion. She returned the hug and felt the stresses of the day escape her body.

When he pulled away, she felt much better. He'd never hugged her before, even when she had hugged him, and this had somehow been exactly what she'd needed today.

"Thank you," she said.

The way he looked at her when she said those words brought her back five years, to a boy and a girl untouched by the rest of the world on the only path out of Konoha.

"You're welcome," he murmured.

_Thank you,_ his voice whispered in her mind, and something warm and powerful surged into her heart and exploded into a smile on her face.

"No," she said, as she cupped his face with her hands, "_You're_ welcome."

x-x-x-x

(that everything would be alright.)  
END


End file.
